Mer Receptor Tyrosine Kinase Signaling Prevents Self-Ligand Sensing and Aberrant Selection in Germinal Centers [AUTOIMMUNITY]

Mer tyrosine kinase (Mer) signaling maintains immune tolerance by clearing apoptotic cells (ACs) and inducing immunoregulatory signals. We previously showed that Mer-deficient mice (Mer^–/–) have increased germinal center (GC) responses, T cell activation, and AC accumulation within GCs. Accumulated ACs in GCs can undergo necrosis and release self-ligands, which may influence the outcome of a GC response and selection. In this study, we generated Mer^–/– mice with a global MyD88, TLR7, or TLR9 deficiency and cell type–specific MyD88 deficiency to study the functional correlation between Mer and TLRs in the development of GC responses and autoimmunity. We found that GC B cell–intrinsic sensing of self-RNA, but not self-DNA, released from dead cells accumulated in GCs drives enhanced GC responses in Mer^–/– mice. Although self-ligands directly affect GC B cell responses, the loss of Mer in dendritic cells promotes enhanced T cell activation and proinflammatory cytokine production. To study the impact of Mer deficiency on the development of autoimmunity, we generated autoimmune-prone B6.Sle1b mice deficient in Mer (Sle1b.Mer^–/–). We observed accelerated autoimmunity development even under conditions where Sle1b.Mer^–/– mice did not exhibit increased AC accumulation in GCs compared with B6.Sle1b mice, indicating that Mer immunoregulatory signaling in APCs regulates B cell selection and autoimmunity. We further found significant expansion, retention, and class-switching of autoreactive B cells in GCs under conditions where ACs accumulated in GCs of Sle1b.Mer^–/– mice. Altogether, both the phagocytic and immunomodulatory functions of Mer regulate GC responses to prevent the development of autoimmunity.

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